OpenAI has put a virtual try-on button on clothing and accessory listings inside ChatGPT, and it is live worldwide on mobile and web. The company announced it on 1 October 2026 alongside Favorites, a bookmarking tool that saves products into a shopper’s ChatGPT Library. Both features run on ChatGPT Images 2.5, the image model OpenAI released the same day.
How Try-On Works
A Try on button appears on product listings for clothes and accessories, according to the OpenAI Help Center. Selecting it asks the shopper to take or upload a selfie, and ChatGPT returns a generated image of the item on them. Reference photos are kept for reuse on later try-ons, and they can be changed or removed under Settings, Personalization, Reference photos.
Shoppers can also work without the button. Uploading a picture of a garment or accessory into a conversation and asking ChatGPT to show how it would look does the same job, which means a screenshot taken from any retailer’s site can become a try-on.
OpenAI attaches its own caveat. It says try-on images may not represent the product or the shopper’s appearance exactly and do not guarantee fit or size, and it tells shoppers to check the merchant’s measurements, product details and return policy before buying.
The Model Doing The Work
OpenAI says people create more than 3 billion images a week across ChatGPT Images and its image API. It describes Images 2.5 as producing more natural lighting and richer textures, holding the subjects of reference photos more consistently, and cutting image generation latency by up to half against Images 2.0.
Those are the three claims a try-on depends on. The model has to redraw a garment onto a shopper while keeping the shopper recognisable, and it has to do it quickly enough that browsing does not stall.
Discovery, After The Checkout Retreat
OpenAI’s shopping work has moved steadily earlier in the buying journey. It added Shopify as a search partner in July 2025, launched Shopping Research in November 2025 so shoppers could compare products, then ended its own Instant Checkout in March 2026 after the in-chat buy button underperformed. The help page still lists an Instant Checkout option for some eligible products and merchants.
Try-on and Favorites sit on the other side of that line. They are consideration tools rather than transaction tools, and they give ChatGPT a reason to hold a shopper through the part of the journey where a product gets chosen rather than paid for.
Pinterest And Google Territory
OpenAI says shoppers can also describe a style and ask ChatGPT to find the pieces that complete it, or upload a photo of a celebrity’s outfit and ask which items in it are available to buy. TechCrunch reporter Sarah Perez read that as a move onto ground other companies already hold.
Google reached the same feature first. It brought selfie-based virtual try-on to U.S. shoppers in December 2025 and spent 2026 extending it into more markets. OpenAI arrives on the feature about a year later, but it arrives everywhere at once.
What Merchants Actually Control
Product results in ChatGPT are not an ad buy. OpenAI says they are selected independently by ChatGPT, are not ads, and are not influenced by any OpenAI partnerships. Ads are a separate and separately labelled system in the assistant, and that business passed a $1 billion annual run rate in September 2026.
What a merchant does control is the product data. Shopify merchants’ product data already reaches ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog with no extra work required, and other merchants can apply to OpenAI for a direct product feed so that prices and availability stay current.
Some of the presentation is out of the merchant’s hands. ChatGPT may simplify product titles and descriptions, attach model-generated labels such as Budget-friendly or Most popular, and show review summaries drawn from public websites that OpenAI does not verify. Merchant ranking is OpenAI’s call too, based on factors it lists as availability, price, quality, and whether the seller is the maker or primary seller of the item.
Recap
What has OpenAI launched in ChatGPT?
OpenAI has launched virtual try-on and Favorites in ChatGPT shopping results, worldwide on mobile and web. Try-on generates an image of a clothing or accessory listing on the shopper, and Favorites saves products into the ChatGPT Library.
How does virtual try-on in ChatGPT work?
The shopper selects the Try on button on a product listing, then takes or uploads a selfie. ChatGPT Images 2.5 generates the try-on image, and the reference photo is kept for reuse under Settings, Personalization, Reference photos.
What does virtual try-on change for merchants?
Product results are chosen by ChatGPT and are not ads, so visibility is not something a merchant can buy. Shopify merchants are already included through Shopify Catalog, and other merchants can apply to OpenAI for a direct product feed.